Tennessee secondary
The Titans' defense received a lot of publicity in Week 15 for scoring 21 points in a win over the Jaguars, but it should also be getting some attention for its role in Tennessee's five-game winning streak. Jim Schwartz's group has allowed just over 17 points per game during this streak, but the most impressive part of this accomplishment is that the Titans did this against Philadelphia, the Giants, Indianapolis and Jacksonville, all teams that rank in the top 11 in scoring offense. (Houston was also one of the Titans' recent victims, but the Texans offense is not as impressive as the other four.)

The Tennessee secondary is the central reason this defense has improved. Take a look at the Titans' pass defense metrics during this winning streak:

A 6.4 yards per attempt total for a season normally will place a team near the top 10 in that category, and the Titans did this against four of the NFL's most explosive offenses. That they were able to do this despite a weak pass rush that generated only two sacks in the first four games of the streak makes this accomplishment stand out even more.

The Titans' starting corners have been a big part of the team's recent success. Adam "Pacman" Jones has allowed only five completions in 19 attempts, and has four interceptions in that span. Reynaldo Hill has allowed eight completions for only 88 yards in 15 attempts. He's also contributed one interception during the winning streak.

Hill is a second-year player who might be coming into his own, while Jones always has been seen as a cornerback who gives up as many big plays as he makes. If Jones can post a YPA of under six for an entire season and still make the game-changing plays he is known for, he might give Champ Bailey a run for his money as an All-Pro cornerback.

For his performance in Philly, I'd give Finnegan a higher grade than I'd give Reynaldo for any game in his first two seasons. (Sorry, Gunny!) Finnegan has given up a catch here and there, but I don't know that he's allowed a single big play this year.

I'm sure Fisher has his reasons for not moving Finnegan outside....but I'll be damned if I know what they are.

Finnegan@CB / Fuller@NB >Hill@CB / Finnegan@NB

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I'm sure Fisher's logic is he is playing well at NB and Hill isn't a good fit for NB. Thus we would have to move Finnegan and bring in another NB. However, I'd let Finnegan play outside when we are in our base defense, let the opposing QB try to pick on him and watch him take one to the house.

In fairness to Hill he has improved over the course of the season but I still don't think he is the player Finnegan is and will be.

I would love for Clements to be here, but only at a reasonable price. But we will have a lot of competition in trying to sign him because the 49ers have like 41 million in cap. And they were going to trade for him this season, but Bills wanted a second round pick and didn't want to go that high. It would be great with Pac Man and Clements shutting everybody down, but most likely he will be overpaid.

Tennessee secondary
The Titans' defense received a lot of publicity in Week 15 for scoring 21 points in a win over the Jaguars, but it should also be getting some attention for its role in Tennessee's five-game winning streak. Jim Schwartz's group has allowed just over 17 points per game during this streak, but the most impressive part of this accomplishment is that the Titans did this against Philadelphia, the Giants, Indianapolis and Jacksonville, all teams that rank in the top 11 in scoring offense. (Houston was also one of the Titans' recent victims, but the Texans offense is not as impressive as the other four.)

The Tennessee secondary is the central reason this defense has improved. Take a look at the Titans' pass defense metrics during this winning streak:

A 6.4 yards per attempt total for a season normally will place a team near the top 10 in that category, and the Titans did this against four of the NFL's most explosive offenses. That they were able to do this despite a weak pass rush that generated only two sacks in the first four games of the streak makes this accomplishment stand out even more.

The Titans' starting corners have been a big part of the team's recent success. Adam "Pacman" Jones has allowed only five completions in 19 attempts, and has four interceptions in that span. Reynaldo Hill has allowed eight completions for only 88 yards in 15 attempts. He's also contributed one interception during the winning streak.

Hill is a second-year player who might be coming into his own, while Jones always has been seen as a cornerback who gives up as many big plays as he makes. If Jones can post a YPA of under six for an entire season and still make the game-changing plays he is known for, he might give Champ Bailey a run for his money as an All-Pro cornerback.

If we look at the results, we can win despite giving up BIG y/a like against Indy (12.54). We can also lose giving up a low y/a (5.35 vs Indy). However, y/a can seriously be skwed by playing a lot of 2 deep...which we do. This forces the QB to throw shorter. It also keeps us from having as good a run D (7 on 7). So while we slow down the big play (theoretically since Hill and LT have been starting), it allows teams better success moving the chains. This can be offset to some extent by blitzing, but we don't do that very much either. The downside to this bend don't break philosophy is TOP. We were very fortunate in our last game to win despite giving up an unbelievable TOP!

Top 10 D? PLEASE! Start with points and yards which are most indicative. How good are we there? Not good!

And Pacman is iffy while Hill is coming into his own? Think they got that backwards!!! And no way have the numbers attributed to passes caught vs targeted passes/yards been accurate. How's responsible for defending a pass thrown in between 3 zone defenders??? Since we play mostly zone, these numbers are out the window unless there is an official NFL source listing this....which there isn't. These might be someone's opinion, but I think virtually everyone except Gunny thinks Hill needs replacing while Pac has really developed and played well this year!

We hear that CB Nate Clements’ strong play in recent weeks virtually assures the fact that he’ll be leaving the Bills via free agency this coming offseason. We hear that the agreement between the Bills and Clements that the team would not use the franchise tag on the 27-year-old for a second consecutive year was written into Clements’ one-year contract for 2006. As a result, the Bills must decide whether they’re willing to make Clements, who boasts excellent size, speed and playmaking ability and was a Pro Bowler after the ’04 season, one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in the game, or allow him to leave. We hear that a number of teams are already lining up to make a run at Clements if he hits the open market. Word is the Bills and Clements have had preliminary discussions regarding a new deal, but that they were so far apart they decided that any further discussion would be a waste of time. With needs at several positions, we hear it’s unlikely that the Bills will break the bank for one player

"Oh and the bidding is said to start at 15-18 million in SB."

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Clements is almost assured of signing the biggest CB contract in history because EVERYONE has cap room and there will only be 2 top CB's available (one if the Pats keep Samuel). Simple Supply/Demand.

We should not overpay for Clements. More importantly, who's running the defense next year and are we gonna predominantly play zone? If it's Schwartz or we're gonna play mostly zone, no point in paying any CB top money to cover grass. Better off spending money on the front 7!

Clements and Samuel are both good! If we are gonna overspend on one, I'd probably go with Samuel (he'll be less money I think) and front load the contract!

Our defensive scheme goes back to Fisher. He has always felt the odds of a team driving the ball 80 yards is marginal. He does have that "bend but don't break attitude", and it does seem to work. Now if you look at what our D has done in the last 7 games, and consider we have not won TOP in any of them (we broke even in the Colts game), it's the footprint for a successful team, if we can fix our offense to where we can stay on the field. The year we led the league in rushing D we also led the league in TOP, they do go hand in hand. Let's remember this defense is just now learning to play together. We added Hope and Thornton this year, and are working in Tulloch, Finnegan, Lowry, Connover, Brown and even Smith, although he played here before. It takes time for chemistry to develop, and we are just now starting to see results. I watched the Jags game again last night, and while they had a few big plays, overall we shut them down pretty good, considering they ran 88 plays. They just put 44 on the Colts, and they had the ball for almost 45 minutes against us and only managed 17 points. The stats weren't pretty, but the results certainly were.

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